MIKE MULLEN
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Updated
11/13/2012

Drunk eating with a credit card while getting yelled at can turn you into a viral star.

Here’s the short-order cook’s recipe for getting your picture to go viral online: Mix five parts alcohol, three parts disappointment and one part public confrontation. Serve immediately, preferably on Twitter, and voila.

In capturing a rather sad little lovers’ spat during Sunday’s Minnesota Vikings game, Andover resident Brian Riesgraf has preserved for posterity a classic instance of alcohol-induced resourcefulness, and the resulting humiliation. The photo has since become a cause for national mockery and, it seems, only minimal shame for the picture’s subject.

As you can see, at the very instant the picture was taken, the lady-friend was angrily criticizing her drunken man’s decision to eat a bowl of ice cream using his credit card in place of a spoon. (With only a bit of imagination, the picture is probably the single most poignant metaphor for the downfall of the American economy.)

The photo has since made the rounds – and rounds, and rounds – of Internet snarkdom: At last count, it had racked up more than 1 million views on Imgur and caused a stir on Reddit. Questions abound, including: “Who is this clown?” and, “Hey, what’s, like, what's her problem, man?” and, “Is Dwayne Rudd even still in the NFL?”

As it turns out, Riesgraf and his boozed-up muse may soon cross paths again, as he later tweeted that someone who knows the fan had reached out to him. The hungry fan “thinks its funny,” [sic, sick] and will be at the Chicago Bears game (presumably the Dec. 9 Bears-Vikings dustup at the Dome).

If he does make it, the viral picture could serve as an explanation if the seat to his immediate right is conspicuously empty.